More from Keith Stanovich's Rationality & the Reflective Mind follows.
The difference between the reflective mind and algorithmic mind is captured by the distinction between intelligence tests and critical thinking tests. Psychometricians have long distinguished between typical and optimal performance situations.
Typical ones are unconstrained in that no overt instruction to maximize performance are given, and task interpretation is determined to some extent by the participant. Goals are somewhat open. The measures are of the reflective mind -- in part goal priority and epistemic regulation.
Optimal ones have the task interpretation determined externally -- not by the participant -- and the participant is instructed to maximize performance and how to do so.
All test measures of intelligence or cognitive ability are of optimal performance, whereas measures of critical or rational thinking are of typical performance. Intelligence (IQ) tests are more constrained at the reflective level and critical thinking tests are less constrained at the reflective level. Critical thinking tests create ambiguity about what feature of the problem to rely upon -- ambiguity that is resolved differently by individuals with different epistemic dispositions. On an IQ test there would be little or no ambiguity. "Such tests attempt to constrain reflective-level functioning to isolate processing abilities at the algorithmic level of analysis. It is the efficiency of computational abilities under optimal (not typical) conditions that is the focus of IQ tests" (41).
"Many different studies . . . have indicated that measures of intelligence display only moderate to weak correlations (usually less than 0.30) with some thinking dispositions (e.g., actively open-minded thinking, need for cognition) and near zero correlations with others (e.g., conscientiousness, curiosity, diligence)" (38).
Stanovich has another book, What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought, about this topic. I have not read it, but when I peeked at the book on Amazon there seemed to be very little about critical thinking.
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